There can be no argument over who will be the fastest man on track for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix. After Max Verstappen delivered a crushingly quick lap at Spa-Francorchamps in qualifying he appears unstoppable and he knows it, for all that he will not begin the race from pole because of a five-place grid penalty.
Starting in sixth will barely be an inconvenience, a gnat pestering a giant for Verstappen who set the quickest lap in Belgium by almost a full second. His dominance was such in the end that an earlier angry exchange with his race engineer appeared to be a rank overreaction from the Dutchman.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who took a strong second, will start on pole but has already conceded his chances of keeping Verstappen behind him are slim. An opinion with which the world champion concurred having taken victory from 14th on the grid here in 2022. “Last year we started 14th here and this year the car is better,” he said. “So I am still targeting to win the race.”
There is no reason whatsoever he will not do so. In 2022 it took him just 12 laps to take the lead. It is unlikely he will be bothered with the opposition for so long this time out and that includes teammate Sergio Pérez, who will start second, promoted from third.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, was fourth and will start in third, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was fifth and will start in fourth and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri went from sixth to fifth.
Verstappen received the penalty for taking his fifth new gearbox of the season. Red Bull have opted to take the hit in Belgium because of the ample overtaking opportunities on the circuit. With their pace advantage this year even greater it appears a sage decision, especially after Verstappen demonstrated such ominous pace.
With rain on and off throughout the day the track was treacherous as the session began and with only one practice session of limited running in heavy rain preceding it, qualifying was a tense affair as the circuit dried and the world champion duly delivered.
With more rubber getting on the track, the times were dropping in Q3 making the very final runs key and for a gripping shootout. Leclerc had the advantage on the first hot laps with a 1min 47.932sec lap, a tenth up on Verstappen.
With the grip at its best, the session came down to a single run and had looked to be as open a contest as has been seen this season, with Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes potentially in the mix.
Leclerc duly improved first to hold his provisional pole only for Verstappen to finally reveal the Red Bull’s real pace as he delivered an exceptional lap, eight-tenths up on Leclerc with a 1min 46.168sec run.
It had not gone entirely swimmingly, however. Verstappen faced a real scare, just scraping through in 10th in Q2. Angry, he lambasted his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase because he had been told to do a slow lap in between his final two quick runs and accused the team of “shit execution”.
In what was a highly unusual spat between the pair, Lambiase feistily hit back, asking his driver if he wanted to choose the set-up, fuel and run plans himself.
No doubt placated by the cavernous margin he then put between himself and the rest of the field Verstappen later apologised for his “rant” at Lambiase, who laconically replied it was fine, as he was “slowly getting used to it”.
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Off track, as part of a major restructuring, the Alpine team dramatically announced on Friday the removal of several senior personnel, including team principal Otmar Szafnauer after just 18 months in charge and the exit of sporting director Alan Permane, who has been with the Enstone-based squad for 34 years.
Both will leave in short order after this grand prix. Williams meanwhile declared that Alpine’s chief technical officer Pat Fry is joining them to become technical director.
The timing of the announcement, midway through the Friday of a race weekend suggests Alpine are going through considerable contortions behind the scenes. It is believed the former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto is lined up to take over.
Lando Norris was seventh for McLaren, George Russell was eighth for Mercedes and Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, ninth and 10th for Aston Martin.
Yuki Tsunoda was 11th for AlphaTauri, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon in 12th and 15th for Alpine, Kevin Magnussen in 13th for Haas but will take a three-place grid penalty for impeding Leclerc. Valtteri Bottas was in 14th for Alfa Romeo.
Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant were in 16th and 18th for Williams, Guanyu Zhou in 17th for Alfa Romeo, Daniel Ricciardo was in 19th for AlphaTauri and Nico Hülkenberg 20th for Haas.
